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Back in Bangkok. Briefly.

Not a bad journey here. I’d happily recommend Etihad – comfy planes, great staff, good food, decent legroom and a wide range of things to watch on the seat-back TVs. If I have a complaint, it’s that the trivia quiz game had too many American football questions in it. And that the flight times mean I was flying during the day instead of at night as i usually do so my sleep’ll be a bit whacky.

So here I sit in the bus station just outside Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. This is – as far as I could determine – the cheapest way to get to Trat (or Trad, or Tart – depends on which sign you read) near the Cambodian border.

My flight landed early, which was nice, but there was the usual delay at immigration. I didn’t have a hotel name on my immigration card but there were no problems when I explained I was transitting to Cambodia. To get to the bus station, it was a walk outside to where the Airport Express runs from, but a short walk past them to the end of the concourse (bear left when exiting the terminal one floor below where arrivals come out). There’s a shuttle bus every few minutes which I think is meant to cost 10 baht, but I paid 20. Hey ho.

Ignore the bus timetables posted at the station. According to them, the next bus to Trat was around lunchtime. An alternative was getting the 10:10 to Chanthaburi then hopping on a local bus for the 90 minute ride south.

However, when I asked the smiley and helpful young lady behind the counter, she informed me that the next Trat (city, not ferry) bus was actually at 9:10 (90 minutes wait) and 248 baht (around six British Pounds). I should arrive in Trat around 16:20. I asked and was told that the journey is non-stop so I’m going to pick up some drinks and munchies. Having said that, I’d be genuinely surprised if there’s not at least one stop along the way. I’ll likely sleep for most of the trip anyway. Especially as, once I finish my book, I’ve got nothing to do courtesy of the thieving toerag in Kuala Lumpur last year who stole my PSP. I hope you get cancer, you filthy lowlife.

So I have an hour to kill and I discovered a free wi-fi connection. If you’re ever here and need to check your mail, sit near stop number 3 and connect to “muek”. Now all I need is a power point…

Overall, a nice journey. The weather’s not looking great here. It’s warm but very humid and the sky is completely grey. I don’t know whether that will burn off or not as the sun rises. I’m hoping for better weather by the time I get near the coast.